


We don't know who we are...

by Miralana, TransCatPrince



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Mythology, M/M, Mermaids, Period Typical Attitudes, Pirates, Xenophilia, a surprisingly little amount of fish sex for all the research i've done, are referenced
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-02 16:15:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10948125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miralana/pseuds/Miralana, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TransCatPrince/pseuds/TransCatPrince
Summary: As the long suffering Quartermaster of the Duchess, Otabek Altin has seen some serious shit in his life. Having their base destroyed and running from the British Navy is the low point of his year, though. Until he gets hit right in the face with a fish.By a fish.Well… at least it’s a pretty one.





	We don't know who we are...

**Author's Note:**

> i only heard about the otayuri big bang when pinch hitter were needed and of course i had to jump at that. thanks to my lovely artist for drawing this amazing pic for me to write about and thanks to my amazing [beta](http://samanthacarter.tumblr.com/) for reading this, despite not liking the fandom.
> 
> also: this is set around the golden age of piracy, stuff like the 'liberation' of nassau by the british navy is referenced, but there are probably a lot of inaccuracies.

 

 

>   _until we're connected to someone else. We're just better human beings when we're with the person we're supposed to be with._

It’s on a Wednesday at the end of November that their luck finally runs out. They’re lying on the beach, watching Captain Lee glare daggers into his crew because they can’t unload the stolen cargo fast enough, enjoying the good life and not thinking anything bad, when the bells start chiming.

At first they don’t notice.

In true tradition Lee managed to capture or buy a mermaid, which is chained to the hull, skin probably half dried by the sun, with a look on its face that rivals Lee’s own. On the count of three, a few sailors throw buckets of water at it over the rail and it screams loudly, drowning out every other noise in the vicinity. When they’re hunting there is no need to keep the mermaid wet, because the waves take care of that. But right now Lee’s ship – which has a name Otabek cannot pronounce – is anchored a hundred yards off the shore, with not a wave in sight.

“Do you think it actually works?” JJ asks, his arms crossed behind his head.

Otabek is about to answer that of course it doesn’t – even though Lee is the most successful Captain Nassau has to offer – when he hears it.

The bells chime and all around them, people look up. It’s not the full hour yet, so there shouldn’t be any bells. Which can only mean one thing.

Of course Otabek can’t see anything. He gets up, but Lee’s ship is still blocking his view. He doesn’t have to hear the loud yell of “SAIL!” to know what it means.

Instead Otabek looks around making sure that their crew is very much together before the first shot hits a tent at the far end of the beach.

Someone yells, someone screams. People start running and Otabek shares a look with JJ. He nods and JJ turns around to the crew. “Everyone back to the ship, now!”

Nobody mentions that a lot of them have been spending their time on the island, that all of their possessions are still in the tents at the other end. Everyone is aware enough of the threat to shut up for once and not make a big scene out of it.

While running Otabek sees the British flag high on the mast of seven warships and curses. They move through the streets of Nassau, away from the harbour because someone – JJ of course likes to claim it as his idea, but Otabek is pretty sure Mr Chulanont was the one who came up with it – had the bright idea to hide their ship in the bay outside the port.

It’s still there when they get there, the rowboats lying upside down under heavy tarpaulins to protect them from the elements.

“To the ship!” Otabek orders, while the first sailors are starting to take the boats. There are still crewmembers coming from the city and Otabek hopes that they won’t have to leave anyone behind, but right now they can’t risk waiting for anyone who might have spent their time away from the beach.

They make it to the ship within twenty minutes and Otabek doesn’t dare look back for anyone who might still be there. They waited as long as they could.

“Weigh the anchor, hoist the sails!” Mr de la Iglesia yells from the helm, while the riggers are already climbing up and untying the sheets. He sees Mr de la Iglesia’s husband running around, yelling at the sailors and getting everything ready for departure.

The wind is in their favour – at least – so they don’t have to get out the oars and instead can take off right away.

“Which way, Captain?” Mr de la Iglesia asks and JJ tenses.  From the city they can still hear the canons, and the scent of powder and fire is starting to come over to them.

They can’t go that way so everything to the east is off limits for them. The islands to the west has been taken back by the British Navy recently. If they want to stay within the islands, that leaves the smaller islands surrounding New Providence. If they haven’t been taken back yet.

JJ seems to come to the same conclusion. “Set sail for Great Abaco.”

It seems like life as a pirate is about to become really difficult.

 

* * *

 

 

With the wind good and Great Abaco less than a hundred miles away it should take them a few days to get there.

It should.

But then, Otabek remembers, their luck has run out, so he can’t really expect that to actually work. They don’t even get to the hidden port that they frequently visit, they don’t even make it past the first island, because there is a whole line of ships anchored before every harbour. A blockade. The English king must have finally had enough.

Otabek swallows and puts the spyglass down.

“What are our options?” he asks and turns around. Mr de la Iglesia has given the helm to his mate and is studying the map. JJ keeps drumming his fingers on the table and Otabek gives him a dark look. It makes him stop at least.

“We could set sail for Saint-Domingue or Santo Domingo, the Spanish are still hit by the war and the French …” he trails off but both Otabek and JJ know what he means. There is no French West India Company, so everything the French can do has to come out of their own naval fleet; out of their own pocket. In other words, they have little to fear. They could take a look at Tortuga, maybe make their way to Port Royal if it looks safe.

“The other option,” JJ says. “Is going back to the indies.”

Otabek swallows. It’s something they have spoken about quite a few times already. Their crew is full of people from different countries and he knows for sure that at least Mr Chulanont wants to go back. Or be able to go back. It’s no coincidence that they’re here after all. The threat of slavery – in Mr Ji’s and Mr Chulanont case -, forced labour – for Otabek who still has an outstanding contract with the British East India Company – and prison for desertion – for JJ and Mr de la Iglesia. If they don’t get the rope for being pirates anyway.

“Let’s talk about that when we’ve reached the Hispaniolas. We don’t have enough provisions to get us there anyway.”

“Actually,” another voice chimes in before anyone can say anything. “We don’t have enough provisions to last us three days.”

Mr Ji cowers in on himself and stays close to Mr de la Iglesia when Otabek’s gaze hits him. Otabek isn’t a big man, but he’s always had that effect on people. His grandmother had once told him that he had inherited her affinity to the gods, but then Otabek has long stopped worshipping them.

“What do you mean?” he asks, his tone dark.

“We didn’t plan to leave! And we’ve been on the island for so long, all of our provisions were there.”

He feels a headache growing behind his eyes. “What do we have?”

“Water, some dried meat and dried oranges. But it was only ever gonna get us to another island.”

Otabek sighs and rubs his eyes. Somewhere in the distance the sound of Nassau burning still reaches their ears.

 

* * *

 

 

They try different islands and coasts, those that have been known to host and accommodate pirates, those that had forsaken the tyranny of England and Spain. Those that are now … back to following the law of an oppressive regime and don’t even allow them to land. They keep it up for a few days, still making their way to the Hispaniolas when it becomes clear that they are going to run out of provisions before the week is over.

The men are jumpy, hungry, thirsty. Mistrust gathers around them and Otabek is reminded that most of them haven’t been with them for a long time. Most of the sailors were part of the ‘cargo’ the Duchess carried when JJ decided that he wanted to piss off the Royal Navy – and also because the King Jean was falling apart – and most of them had agreed to join the crew. Shortly after that they had reached Nassau and thus had been able to lead a fun and enjoyable life. It is different than with JJ who had ‘saved’ Otabek all those years ago and Mr de la Iglesia who had begged them to take him in. While Mr Ji is a relatively recent addition to their crew, he’s blinded by love.

They are all aware that they are on the verge of mutiny, when the rain suddenly stops and they are left with so little water that it doesn’t even fill their empty stomachs anymore.

 

* * *

 

 

In the end, it’s Mr Chulanont who saves them. All of their fishing nets are of course on the Beach in Nassau, but the Duchess herself had also carried some, Mr Chulanont explains to them.

So Chulanont takes three people down into the ship and comes back with a giant net.

“How do you know it was there?”

“Emergency supplies,” Chulanont smiles brightly. “I was the only one who spoke enough English and knew how to fish, since you know, officers don’t need to know how to survive out on the ocean.”

Otabek snorts. He’s not surprised by that at all.

Chulanont had been a fisher – or his father had been, Otabek hadn’t cared enough to listen – until he couldn’t pay his debts to his British overlords anymore and had been forced to sell himself for the rest of his life. Or as Otabek is pretty sure they made it sound, until his debt had been paid off.

“So how are we gonna do this?” He’s pretty sure that this is not the kind of net they usually work with and he’s not sure anyone is ready to learn anything new at this point.

“The net goes under the keel, starboard and port side. We keep going at our usual pace, maybe a few knots slower. In a few hours someone will jump down with one end of the net, go under the keel and we’ll pull the net right up.”

It sounds surprisingly easy.

 

* * *

 

 

And it is, as soon as they’ve found a _volunteer_ who can hold his breath long enough. They catch enough fish to live on for a few days – and toss the rest back into the water still wriggling – and repeat the process again and again.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s during the early morning of the fifteenth day since they left Nassau when Otabek steps out onto the deck and sees the poor drenched sailor who had been volunteered by his crewmembers for the job climbing back onto the rail and falling onto the planks like a wet rag.

He looks exhausted and while it’s not as cold as Otabek is used too, it’s still not a pleasant weather to be in this constitution.

In a rare moment of empathy Otabek sends him back to his hammock and starts turning the wheel himself. He regrets his choice as soon as he’s done the first spin because the net is uncharacteristically heavy. Nevertheless Otabek keeps on, and only stops when he can see the bottom of the net out of the corner of his eyes. He fixes the wheel, before turning around to yell for someone to help him pull the net over, when he hears it.

“Hey, asshole!”

Otabek freezes, realises that he doesn’t know the voice and turns around. He doesn’t know what he expects. It’s not a wet fish hitting him square in the face. It lands with a wet squelch on the planks and Otabek looks slowly up.

“Fucking finally. What the hell is your problem, man?” The thing says and Otabek blinks. There a foreign accent in its voice that reminds Otabek of some of the traders he had come into contact with, at home.

Fish are getting pushed aside, as the thing moves closer towards the nets and hooks its clawed fingers through the holes.

“What?” he manages to press out and digs his nails into his palm to make sure he isn’t dreaming.

Now that the thing isn’t covered by fish anymore, Otabek can see parts of it. His first instinct would have him say human. Young, long light blonde hair braided partially back over his head with a long fringe falling over his face, fair skin and green eyes, with slightly sharp teeth. He is naked from the waist up. But from the waist down…

Otabek pinches himself.

No, the lavender scales are still there. There are dark purple and black markings all the way down as far as Otabek can see, until the tail – and it is nothing else than a fish tail – ends.

“Hello? I’m talking to you fuckface! Poseidon, of all the monkeys, I am the one who got the one who is stupid, of course.”

“Monkey?”

“Oh, it can talk!” the – is it a mermaid? – says and rolls its eyes. “Yeah you, your species.”

“Humans.”

“Who. Cares.” It bares its pointed teeth at Otabek. “Are you gonna cut me loose or what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Otabek isn’t someone who is phased my much, but this thing might be the breaking point.

Another fish hits him, this time in the chest, and Otabek takes a step forward. It’s probably best to cut it loose, before anyone notices. “Just give me a second.”

“Better be fast, asshole.”

Kicking the fish out of the way Otabek steps closer to the rail and the net. He’s not sure if the mermaid is going to attack him if he comes closer – but then Otabek is the only one who can save it right now, so it should probably behave – so he gets his knife out and gets on his tip toes to cut the rope, when the mermaid suddenly shifts. Otabek misses the rope and steadies himself by gripping the net itself.

“Stop moving,” he hisses at it. The mermaid bares its pointy teeth and hisses back – it is a lot more intimidating than Otabek for sure.

“Just cut me lose, how can it be so hard?”

“It would be a lot easier if you could stop moving.”

This apparently only agitates it more and Otabek is seriously thinking about giving up, when he hears steps on the planks behind him.

“Mr Altin is ever- sweet mother of god.” It’s one of the carpenter’s mates. “CAPTAIN,” he yells, before Otabek can stop him and runs back to where JJ is probably sleeping, instead of doing some actual work.

Otabek curses under his breath and tries to pull the net towards himself again, but the mermaid seems to be aware of the rest of the crew waking.

“Faster, asshole,” it yells and Otabek finally manages to hook the blade into the rope. In the corner of his eye he sees the first members of the crew gathering around him, but he cuts it, once, twice, loses count. It’s then that the mermaid moves too fast, trying to get out of the net before Otabek can turn it around. The fish spill onto the deck against Otabek’s feet. It takes him a second to realise what’s about to happen.

Then the mermaid’s tail kicks his legs out from under him and Otabek falls back first on the floor, a weight pressing him back- and downwards.

He comes to himself with the very heavy weight of something slippery on his legs and hips.

The mermaid has gripped the lapels of his overcoat to steady itself and looks at him with a mix of confusion and outright fury. It smells of sea and something else, something he can’t name.

Up close its eyes are hypnotizing, light green with a hint of sea blue in it. For a second Otabek wonders if this is what sailors speak of when they talk in hushed voices of the call of a siren – but are sirens and mermaids the same – and if this mermaid has somehow bewitched him. If he will follow it into the sea when it calls to him the next time.

And if he would care at all.

And then a gun clicks and it’s over. It’s JJ who has a pistol pointed at the mermaids head. The sharp claws clench in the fabric of his overcoat and Otabek raises his eyebrows in a warning for JJ, who of course doesn’t even look at him.

“Off him, come on.”

“Mr Altin, are you okay?” Mr de la Iglesia asks and Otabek

nods. He thinks he’s okay at least.

Baring its teeth again, the mermaid shakes its head. One claw wanders from his shirt to his throat and now JJ seems to realise that he might be endangering Otabek’s life.

“You shoot me, I’ll kill him, fuckface,” the mermaid threatens and JJ swallows. There are more guns pointed at the mermaid, but apparently they all don’t want to vote for a new quartermaster.

Maybe loyalty isn’t dead after all.

“You help me onto that thing,” it motions to the rail. “I let him go.”

JJ’s mouth crooks into a smile. “Fine.”

The mermaid looks back at Otabek, seemingly surprised at how easy that was.

It presses down on his throat a bit, the sharp edges of its claws nearly breaking the skin, an obvious warning not to lie to it and if Otabek wouldn’t be a second away from being dead, he would nod his head in respect at so much guts.

“You’ll die if you jump right now,” Otabek explains and the grip around his throat lessens.

“Why?”

“We’re going too fast, you’ll be drawn under the keel. You would have to jump far away from the ship.”

Considering that the mermaid seems to have trouble sitting upright with that tail of its Otabek doesn’t know if it wouldn’t die.

“So what’s it gonna be? Dying or dying?” JJ asks and only because Otabek has known him for so long, does he notice the tremor in his voice.

Just like Otabek himself, JJ is feeling completely out of his depth.

“Um, Captain?” Mr Chulanont pushes himself through the crew around them and rubs his neck. “Doesn’t it seem like bad luck to kill a mermaid?”

The sailors around him nod and murmur their encouragements. JJ looks around and Otabek knows him well enough to know that he’s contemplating doing it anyway. But in the end, he bends to his men’s will. When JJ looks back at the mermaid, he sighs.

“If you let him go, you can stay here until we lose a few knots later today,” he offers and the mermaid narrows its eyes.

“Why should I believe you?”

“I swear on the Holy Mother Mary that nothing will happen to you,” he draws a cross over his chest and looks poignantly at the mermaid, who just looks confused. Then it swallows.

“If you fuck me over, you will not see the sun again, understood, asshole? I will drown all of you and put your canoe at the bottom of the ocean.”

JJ mock-bows in front of it and the mermaid stops gripping Otabek’s throat and move – or rolls – off him onto the deck. For a second it seems frightened, but then the dark look returns and it crosses its arms.

“Well? Get me some water, you fuckers!”

 

* * *

 

 

In the end, they find a really large trough, fill it with water and heave the mermaid in it. Seemingly content, the mermaid orders some of the younger boys around to get it something to eat, while most of the other crewmen go back to their posts or help the cook pick up all the fish.

Otabek looks at the mermaid from where he is standing at the helm and furrows his brows.

His throat still tingles where the mermaid had gripped it and he’s not sure if it did something to him or if he had just had a rare case of emotions overrunning him.

“You alright?” JJ asks, when he joins him and Otabek nods, before JJ continues. “I was fucking scared. Thought you were done for.”

“You? Try having a two hundred pound fish on you.”

“Well, at least it was a pretty fish.”

Otabek blinks. Turns his head around to JJ, with his eyebrows raised, ready to scold him for saying something his god probably wouldn’t approve of. But then he looks back at the mermaid, which is still lying in the trough, yelling at people to bring it things, while untangling its light blond hair with nimble fingers.

Otabek takes a sip from his cup. _Well … fuck._

 

* * *

 

He dares to approach the mermaid hours later, when the initial amazement has passed for most of the crew.

“So what’s your name?” the mermaid asks, playing with a fishbone it had just gnawed the flesh off.

“Otabek Altin,” he answers and then curses himself. Do mermaids have the power to curse names? He doesn’t remember what his mother told him about the ruskala, but then he doesn’t know if there are different types of mermaids or if they’re all the same. The fact that this mermaid is apparently able to talk and think the same way Otabek is, is an even greater surprise. He has always thought of them as animal like, with their body half fish, their claws and their teeth’s. Kind of like monkeys were to humans. In retrospect, he gets why the mermaid called them monkeys. If Otabek doesn’t see a difference between them and a fish, they might not see a difference between them and monkeys.

“Hm,” makes the mermaid. “Yuri of the Plisetsky swarm.”

“Ah.” Otabek says, hoping that it sounds like he knows what that means. “Are you from around here?”

Yuri snorts. “No. My home is the Sea of Okhotsk.”

East Indies. He’s not sure where exactly it is, but he thinks it might be even further than his own home. Maybe even closer to go the other way around, if you could cross the Americas by foot.

“So what brings you here?” he tells himself that he’s only asking to get to know a potential enemy better, that this thing might attack them at any point, but Otabek has always been interested in the unknown, he has always wanted to absorb knowledge.

Yuri sighs. “An … acquaintance of mine got it into his stupid bald head that he needs to set out to find true love or some shit and that true love comes in the form of a fucking pig in Giapan.”

“Isn’t … Giapan not far from the Sea of Okhotsk?”

Yuri gives him a look of pure anger. If Otabek were a lesser man he might have been frightened.

“I missed the current, okay, asshole? So I tried asking around, but no one knew what I meant and then hey, I swam into one of those fucking monkey-ships and they tried attacking me, just like you did. So I fled.”

“And you came all the way here.”

Yuri grips the edges of the trough with its fingers. “Where is here?”

 

* * *

 

 

Otabek gets them a map and shows it just how far away from home it is. The look of loss and longing on his face makes him look a lot younger than he probably is. It makes him look unbelievably human. He’s half a world away from where he belongs surrounded by men who at the best want to chain him to their ship. They try to recreate his route, try to find out if he went around the Americas at the top or at the bottom – most likely at the bottom, Yuri agrees, he followed a merchant ship for a long while – and how long it has been since he left home. Months. Yuri remembers that it was summer when his acquaintance left and now it’s winter.

“You can stay for a bit longer if you want,” Otabek finds himself saying, but Yuri scoffs.

“That’s not gonna help me get home, you know.”

“No, but we are going in the general direction you need to go.” Otabek points at the Hispaniolas. “This is our destination. You still have a long way to go, but you wouldn’t have to swim all of it.”

“Instead I could sit in a bucket and get cramps in my muscles because it’s too small. Sounds awesome.” Yuri rolls his eyes. “Thanks, but I’ll take my chance with the sea.”

 

* * *

 

 

“You,” Yuri says, two days later, as a bunch of crewmembers pull him up from the water. “Can all go fuck yourselves. Nobody needs you.”

“Us?” Otabek asks, a bit bewildered. It’s the early morning and he has just been woken up by a very confused boatswain’s mate, who had told him with wide eyes that Yuri had knocked on the canons hatch and told the crew to ‘get him the fuck up, because he was so done with humans and their fucking ships’.

Otabek had not been aware that they were at the stage of camaraderie where Yuri could just show up at their ship and demand to be let on board. But then, who was he kidding, the whole crew is fascinated by a real life mermaid. There hadn’t never even been a discussion about letting him go and not chaining him to the ship.

“Humans. Why is your first response always shooting at me? Or throwing a harpoons? Or nets? What is your problem?!” There is fury in Yuri eyes, but Otabek can’t quite take him seriously. He’s still hanging from the rope that he tied around his tail and torso, waiting for one of the boys to put the trough under him.

“I assume other ships saw where you went?” he asks instead and Yuri scoffs. He’s following the boys with narrowed eyes, making them run faster to get more water for his new residence.

“Do you think I’m stupid or what?” Yuri unties the rope and let’s himself fall into the water, splashing every person in the vicinity – so Otabek and the boys – with it. Yuri’s tail flips out of the water and onto the edge of the trough, while Yuri sinks deeper in it. “I went under as soon as I realized what was about to happen. Only came up when they were out of sight.”

Otabek nods relieved. They’ve been making their way steadily so far. Water is getting spare, but they’ve had enough food so far. The last thing they need is a run in with a navy ship.

“So what is the deal anyway?” Yuri asks, his eyes moving over the deck, probably looking for another person to try and catch him. Otabek sends the boys away with a wave and they comply only after he clears his throat, seemingly too stunned by looking at Yuri up close. Otabek can’t blame them, there is something to him that makes Otabek unable to look away from him.

“Why does everyone want to kill me?”

“They don’t,” he moves towards the rail and into the sun, hoping his pants will dry as much as they can out here. “Mermaid’s are … they’re considered good-luck charms.” It’s the truth of course, but Otabek doesn’t know how to tell Yuri that his species is considered nothing more than animals, who are hunted and captured and sold for good luck.

He doesn’t want him to think that this is what they are seeing in him, that he might have to be afraid around them – which he doesn’t have to be of course.

Yuri raises an eyebrow. “Okay, first of all, mermaids? Really? You couldn’t come up with anything better?”

“I didn’t come up with it…” he tries to defend himself, but Yuri goes on without listening. “Sure, we live in the sea and some of us a girls, right, so how is the species of the landmaid faring, huh?”

Otabek throws a dark look at him, but Yuri just snorts, completely un-afraid. “We call ourselves sea folk by the way. Second, if you’re telling me now that humans cut us apart and carry us around as good luck charms, I’m going to scream.”

 “And here I was under the impression that the sea folk makes a habit of drowning humans for sports.” Otabek deliberately doesn’t address the part about the capture, because well… he’s never seen it, but he knows there are parts of the world where mermaids are being sold in pieces. For luck, fertility, potency and as a whatever the people need.

“You’re thinking of Sirens, asshole. You know, sit on rocks, sing pretty well, only show their true face when they’re under water?”

Otabek doesn’t know actually because he has never thought about what Sirens look before. The thought that they’re not the same has crossed his mind before, but it had never been that important. He leans forward and is about to ask what Sirens really look like, when he sees the look on Yuri’s face. He constantly looks like he’s angry at something, but there is a hint there, something that tells him that asking will not bode well for him.

So he leaves it be and keeps watching Yuri stretch his back in the sun.

 

* * *

 

 

“You know… I’ve known you for a long time and I think that mermaid there has heard you speak more in two days than I have in five years.” JJ says, when they sit down in the Captain’s Quarters. JJ is currently writing in the ship’s log about their plans (and about Yuri, Otabek will bet). There’s some cooked fish next to him on a plate, but it is as untouched as Otabek’s. They both can’t see it any more than the rest of the men.

“Sea folk.”

JJ looks up.

“They call themselves Sea folk.”

“Case in point.” He sets his quill down. “Listen, Otabek. I don’t care if you fuck him, nor will the others.”

Otabek is about to say something, reject that thought, defend himself because he really is only fascinated with Yuri. Sure he is beautiful in a way that Otabek hadn’t known was possible before, but there is absolutely no reason for JJ to jump to this conclusion. Yuri might have something ethereal about him, but Otabek is much more interested in the information he can divulge. And in how his face transform when he smiles. And in the way he himself feels when Yuri smiles.

But JJ raises his hand and only because he considers JJ a friend, does he keep his mouth shut. “I just don’t want to lose my Quartermaster. And especially not because some fish with a cocksucking mouth drags you under water.”

Otabek lowers his brows in an accusing way and crosses his arms. They have talked about the difference between Sirens and sea folk and JJ does know it, so there is no reason for him to bring it up.

Especially not in this kind of way.

 

* * *

 

 

“So, there is a ship not far from here. Merchants, you call them, I think.” Yuri is twisting a strand of wet hair around his fingers, lounging in his trough and closing his eyes every time a spray of water hits him. He’s been back for an hour, claiming earlier that he needed to stretch his tail and fins. Otabek – who is currently checking all of the cook’s provision counting and thinking about how much distance they can bring between them and the navy before they need to land – looks up and raises his eyebrows.

He looks at the horizon, but cannot make it out at all in the distance.

“To the north, small, noticed me earlier but didn’t shoot at me,”

Which means they probably don’t have the means to waste any of their ammunition. Not that it matters that much, since the only thing they have en masse are pistols, ammunition and guns.

“How many crewmembers?”

Yuri shrugs. “Only saw a few, probably some under deck.”

Otabek leans back on his chair. They’ve had a few good days and the crew was in good spirits. A hunt would do the men well.

“How far?”

“I made it back in an hour, so for you? Maybe four.” Which explains why he can’t see a ship yet. There’s an island to the north and if the ship is as small as Yuri thinks it is it’s probably keeping to the coast for protection. But they haven’t seen any Navy in this particular waters, since most of these islands belong to the natives.

Otabek leans back and muses, scratches at the stubble on his skin. He only looks back at Yuri, when he notices him looking at him.

“Anything else?”

Yuri shakes his head and looks back at his hair. There’s some colour on his cheeks that could also be a blush, but Otabek is a rational person. It is probably a sunburn.

“What are you two lovebirds chatting about?” JJ says in that moment and leans his hands on Yuri’s shoulders. Yuri scoffs at him and pushes his hands off – of course he can’t resist prickling him with his claws a bit – before looking away.

Yuri doesn’t like JJ that much and Otabek gets it. JJ is a very unlikable person if you haven’t known him for a while – and even then, Otabek sometimes asks himself why exactly he considers the older man a friend – and he has a talent for getting a rise out of their guest.

“Yuri found us a hunt,” he simply says and sees the surprise in JJ’s eyes. He repeats what Yuri told him.

“Really? Now that is good news. I knew there was a reason for keeping you around!”

Both Yuri and Otabek raise their eyebrows at JJ, reminding him silently that Yuri is here because he wants to be here and that Otabek had been the person to bring up the discussion on not capturing Yuri, but to treat him like the guest – and now as the valuable resource – he is; of course there hadn’t been a discussion after all, but he had been the one to care enough about this – and him.

JJ just laughs and turns back to speak to Mr de la Iglesia about the course. A few minutes later he calls for the men and proposes the plan. He knows what’s good for him, so he doesn’t leave the fact that Yuri is the one who told them out, and Otabek hums pleased when the men not only agree [vociferous](http://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/vociferous)ly to the plan, but also yell their thanks at Yuri.

“You’ve ever seen a hunt before?” he asks Yuri and Yuri shakes his head.

“Only from afar, looks kind of ridiculous if you ask me, like two really slow whales chasing each other.”

Otabek dares himself to smile and doesn’t notice the surprised look on Yuri’s face. “It’s anything else then ridiculous from up here.”

 

* * *

 

 

Yuri and his trough are holding on for their lives, when Otabek stumbles towards them twenty minutes later. He’s keeping an eye on the front mast, relaying the mates’ information toward Mr de la Iglesia.

“Up the braces, unfold the canvas!” de la Iglesia yells, his normally rather chatty voice firm and commanding. It’s meant for the Riggers currently balancing on the sparks.

“Hold on, it’s about to get bumpy,” he warns Yuri, who looks at him with a look of such pure terror, that Otabek can’t do anything else than raise his eyebrows in amusement.

The next sail gets released and the Duchess picks up more speed, the masts crunching under the weight.

“Mr Chulanont, our speed!” JJ yells and Mr Chulanont, who’s hanging off the side releases the rope.

“Seven knots, sir!”

Everyone laughs in relief. “Back to your posts,” Otabek orders them and the crewmen scatter around. They’re bringing out the guns, their knifes and swords, getting ready to fight, just in case the Black is not enough to get the ship to surrender immediately.

“You humans,” Yuri says, from where he is still clutching the rail. “Are fucking insane.”

 

* * *

 

 

In the end the ship doesn’t even try to fight them. While JJ tries to get some information out of the captain, asking him about the situation in Nassau, Port Royal, anything he’s heard, Otabek leads the men under deck to the storage rooms. There’s Tabaco and linen there, lots of other things they can sell and – Otabek thanks Yer Tanrı in silence, ignoring the sharp ache for home it leaves in him – there are provisions. Water and food, everything they have been missing for days.

“Get these up, don’t touch them before I’m done counting them.”

Ever since Mr Nikola has left them for some Italian crew they’ve been short on an accountant. A job that Otabek and Mr Ji are currently sharing between them. They’re both not that good with numbers, but they’re still better than anyone else.

 

* * *

 

 

“You look happy,” Yuri says that evening. Otabek has come out to him, his plate and cup balancing on his knees, while he sits on the planks and watches Yuri pick at his scales with sharp claws.

“Happy?” Otabek asks, not sure if he remembers what that feels like.

“Content, whatever,” Yuri waves his hand around. “Not as miserable as usual.” Otabek raises his eyebrows and Yuri rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you’re not miserable. Please don’t pretend otherwise it’s obvious for everyone who has eyes.”

Otabek shakes his head slowly. He doesn’t think Yuri is right. He’s not happy for sure, but then who is happy out here?

Yuri seems to get what he’s thinking about, because he leans forward, his head propped up on crossed arms on the edges. “Why are you here when you don’t like it?”  
“You have never had to do something you don’t like?”

Yuri pouts, his eyes staring in the distance and shakes his head. Lucky him. But maybe that’s the life the sea folk leads. Without war, expectations and poverty.

“There is war in my land. Has been for a long time. It started small, but by now most of my homeland must be invaded by them. We’re nomads, so we have never been involved in the politics of the great Khanates, but war means they need soldiers and I’ve lost three brothers to it already…” Otabek trails off, not used to feeling so vulnerable. “I had heard of the gold that was to be made at sea, so I got my grandmothers permission and left. I went through … I don’t know how many lands, but I reached Bandar Abbas Port looking for work, a ship, anything that might be different than serving in a war we’re going to lose. The British had helped the Persians to defeat the Portuguese so I thought nothing bad of starting a contract with one of their ships.”

Otabek scoffs at the memory. “Turns out, they only allow their own soldiers to become members of the Navy. Still agreed to take me, on a merchant’s ship, though. So I signed a contract I didn’t understand and found myself at the bottom of the ship, rowing alongside other poor people who had made the same mistake as me or worse, who hadn’t even agreed to be there.”

“So how did you get here?” Yuri asks, his eyes wide in the dark. Otabek hasn’t spoken about this in a long time. It feels weird. Wrong, like he shouldn’t be opening up to someone he hasn’t known for that long.

“One day everyone at the top was yelling. “Pirates” they said. They were all going to die. Merchants usually give up without a fight, but these were soldiers, so they fought until the last of them was dead. And the pirate captain freed us. Told us we could join him or get on another ship and be free.” It’s a fond memory, JJ in his ratty French Navy attire, so sure of himself. “Most of them left, stayed on the ship and sailed it who knows where. But the Captain took us all in on his ship and promised to give us a free life.”

“Hm…” Yuri makes, his eyes still trained on Otabek. “So that’s why you like that guy so much. Still doesn’t explain why you are still here.”

Otabek swallows. He doesn’t know how to tell Yuri that he doesn’t believe anyone in his family is still alive. That he wouldn’t even know how to find them in the wild steppes of his home. That he doesn’t believe he could live this life anymore. He’s forever bound to yearn for a home he knows doesn’t exist anymore and won’t make him happy and to live a life he sees no point in. There is nothing in between. There is nowhere he can go. This is the best alternative.

“I’ve learned,” Yuri says. “That it’s not the place that makes you happy, but the people. They make a home a home.”

“You are truly wise beyond your years,” Otabek answers deadpan and Yuri splashes water at him.

“So you miss your people more than the place?”

Yuri nods, a fond expression on his face. “I miss my grandpa, he’s probably worried about me. He used to create small storms for me to play in, the waves as high as this ship. My tu- Yakov and Lilia, they taught me when I was younger. Mila, she’s a Siren and the biggest bitch you’ll ever know. And even fucking Viktor, who left all of us.”

“The one who ran off to Giapan?”

Yuri nods. “For love, the idiot. As if loving one person is worth cutting apart your own tail to walk on land.”

Otabek shrugs. “You’ve obviously never been in love.” Otabek hadn’t himself. He’s been infatuated before, but love… love is what happens when JJ opens the letters from his fiancé home in France. It’s Ji and de la Iglesia standing next to each other at the rail, only seeing themselves and ignoring every bad thing in the world.

Yuri blushes and looks away.

And Otabek is reminded that JJ had been right. He hasn’t talked this much in forever. And he hadn’t even noticed.

 

* * *

 

 

They eat well for a few days – not as much as usually, since the cook is rationing the normal food and adding the fish they catch to it – and make their way when they suddenly see another ship.

Yuri is the first one who notices it, just by swimming around their ship and knowing the water – a fact that Otabek doesn’t question anymore.

“Who is it?” JJ asks him and Otabek puts down the spyglass.

“Lee.” How the hell had he made it out of the Nassau? But then, if there was anyone who could make it out of there, then it was probably Lee.

“Is he hunting us or just sailing in the general direction?”

Otabek shrugs. He can’t tell. Lee is going fast, fast enough for a hunt, but there is no point…

“Hiss the Black,” he orders. “NOW!”

“Any reason for that?” JJ asks.

“How long have we had the Duchess?” _Months._ “And has Lee seen us with her yet?” _No._ He might not know it’s them. That of course doesn’t mean that Lee isn’t after them anyway.

They hiss the Black and wait for Lee to slow down, which he thankfully does. With his ship it still takes him only an hour to reach them.

“Leroy. Altin.” Lee’s voice is as cold as ever, his face expressionless.

“Lee,” Otabek answers, while JJ waves at him and calls him by his first name. Sometimes Otabek asks himself if JJ is on first name basis with all of the captains and how many of them have actually agreed to that. Lee hasn’t, if the narrowing of his eyes is anything to go by.

“What brings you here? We thought you were done for.”

“Thankfully, the royal navy was more interested in clearing out the city itself and we managed to slip away.” Which means that everything they and other pirates had been building for years is now gone.

“That’s some good luck right there,” JJ answers and Lee lowers his head in acknowledgement.

Otabek looks down to the hull, where the member of the sea folk is still chained. She looks better off than usual, probably quite happy with the water around it. He grips the rail, when Yuri’s head comes out of the water, appearing next to her.

He wonders if Lee is aware that his good luck charm is a person that thinks and feels, or if he would care at all. He might ignore it, just to keep his men at bay. Lee is practical like that.

“Others were not so lucky. And there are some who have been hired by the Navy to hunt us.”

“You’re not one of them I assume?” Otabek asks and Lee shakes his head.

“I’m on the way Santo Domingo, we’ll take on provisions and then …” he drifts off, but Otabek knows what he wants to say. And then he’ll sail home. Lee has been here longer than both of them and it seems like England taking back New Providence Island had been the last straw for him.

“Which way are you going?” he asks and Lee tilts his head.

“Africa and Europe. It takes us too long to pass the Americas and some of my crewmembers want to leave.”

Otabek wonders how many of their crewmembers would like to go home, if they knew what they were talking about. How many would leave with Lee? He thinks of Chulanont who he knows wants to go and he wonders if he should call for him and ask him if he wants to leave with Lee. How many would call for a vote to leave for their homes? Of course he knows – and Lee must know this too – that their chances at home are as abysmal as their chances here. Outstanding contracts, slavery, death, imprisonment. But people like dying on their own ground more than on someone else, he considers.

“Well good luck then,” he says and Lee lowers his head in thanks.

“Good luck to you too.”

Otabek watches him set the sails again, going faster than any other ship he has ever seen and sighs. Then he remembers Yuri and looks down, but there is a no one there. For a moment he’s afraid that Yuri had somehow been swept into the current Lee’s ship left, but when he goes to the other side, he’s there, floating next to the gun hatched and looking absolutely furious.

“Yuri?” Otabek asks, but he gets nothing in response. He shares a look with JJ, who just shrugs and then Otabek moves under deck towards the guns. He finds the one close to Yuri, has the gunners roll it back and leans out of it.

“We’re leaving. You should get back up. Or…” Or move away from the ship.

“What will you do if I don’t?” Yuri asks, his voice dark with barely repressed anger. Otabek blinks, unaccustomed to this emotion being directed at him.

“Will you chain me in front of your ship? My body burnt by the sun, my fins broken and stunted from lack of use? As a _good luck charm_?” Yuri finally turns around. There is so much anger in his eyes and underlying fear. Otabek swallows.

Yuri has every right to be angry.

“You made it sound like something fun. Not like…” Yuri waves with his hand, his mouth twisted in disgust. “But I guess _mermaids_ aren’t people, are they?”

“Yuri,” Otabek says. He’s at loss for words. He has no excuse. He deliberately left it out, not sure of how exactly to broach this, not sure how to explain to Yuri, that it took Otabek to get to know Yuri, to think of his species as someone who was just as capable of thought and emotion as a human being. It is probably the worst realisation he ever had, that he would still think of them as something less than human, if he hadn’t gotten to know Yuri. That this is the kind of person he might be deep inside. Someone who doesn’t care enough to question something like this, despite everything he has experienced.

“Was that your plan for me too?” Yuri asks his hair falling over his eyes. “Please don’t lie to me. For once.”

He shakes his head. “No. Never.”

Yuri looks up at him, his eyes wet with tears and a twisted smile on his face.

“I don’t believe you.”

Otabek watches as Yuri turns around and dives under, not even bothering to look back.

It takes JJ pulling him under deck to get something to eat for Otabek to stop looking at the waves Yuri disappeared under.

 

* * *

 

Otabek knows he fucked up. Which means that he feels completely justified for being miserable. There is no way to fix this now. No way to apologise to Yuri.

It doesn’t help when JJ tells him again and again that no one even thought about doing it, even when Yuri had been pissing them off sometimes.  That while he personally doesn’t like Yuri, he had become something of a crewmember for them. Or an asset. JJ doesn’t really makes sense, when he says it, but then Otabek is not really listening.

He’s not the one who needs to be convinced. He’s not the one who will never know the truth.

That person is somewhere in the sea, all alone-

Otabek nearly chokes on his food. He’s all alone again. Far away from home. Where people see him as nothing more than an accessory.

His head hits the real, where he’s sitting outside near the place where Yuri used to spend his time talking to him. It’s not the best coping mechanism, but so far he hasn’t reached for the alcohol, which makes him still better at all of this whole wallowing in self-pity thing than any other person on this ship.

Still, he is so deep into his wallowing that he doesn’t react at first when he hears the words “SAIL!”.

It takes a – not so – gentle kick from JJ to get him up and Otabek sighs.

“What is it?!” JJ yells, waiting for an answer, which doesn’t come. Otabek looks up lazily, puts his plate aside and gets up.

“Today!” JJ yells. They both look up and are only met with a confused look.

“I’ll be honest, Captain, I have no idea if that even is a ship.”

Otabek reaches for the spyglass Mr de la Iglesia just got out of his belt, ignores his complaints and looks himself.

It’s a ship. Otabek has seen similar ones before in Bandar Abbas, merchants from China, Giapan or Siam. He tells JJ as much.

“What is a ship from the East Indies doing so far from home?” JJ asks, but Otabek can do nothing else than shrug.

“And why the fuck is it coming directly at us?”

It might think theirs is a merchant ship. Or it might be a pirate hunter like the one Lee spoke off. Raising the Black might be a bad idea in that case.

“Do they have guns?” he yells up.

“I … don’t think so.”

How … odd.

 

* * *

 

 

“Good day!” they get greeted by someone who is clearly not the Captain in heavily accented English.

“I am Katsuki Yuuri and I was wondering if you could help me.”

Otabek and JJ share a look. “What can we do for you?” Otabek asks Yuuri and tries his best not to look down into the water. The man’s name, the ship, the water. Yuri had been there, the last time they had been this close to another ship.

“Oh we were just wondering if you know of a … nicer port around here?” his glasses keep sliding down his nose.

JJ snorts, but Otabek gives him a look. “I assume you’ve already been to Nassau?”

Yuuri nods. “No luck there. My business partner is looking into buying something … unique.”

“Well than you’re out of luck.”

He seems to consider that one. “So you wouldn’t know where one would procure someone of the sea folk, I assume?”

Otabek freezes. JJ raises his eyebrows. He knows the answer to that of course. Nassau or Port Royal, but how cruel can the world be, to remind him of his failure.

And then, a cold shudder runs down Otabek’s back. “A what?”

Yuuri hadn’t said mermaid. He had called them by what they called themselves.

Yuuri pales. Turns around to talk to someone in a language Otabek can’t understand.

“You know what we mean,” another voice says. The man’s accent is different than Yuuri’s, as is his appearance. He’s pale, from the skin, to the eyes, to the hair. Like the sea had washed out all the colour from him.

He is also … not wearing pants.

“Viktor,” Yuuri says. “We have talked about the whole pants thing. You need to wear them.”

The man – Viktor – lazily waves. He’s wearing a white shirt with a dark vest, better dressed than all of them combined and no pants. Or undergarments.

Otabek has met his fair share of free-thinking people, but outside of a brothel he has never seen someone strut around so shamelessly with his dick out. And no shoes.

“Viktor, please!” Yuuri begs, his face red, obviously uncomfortable.

“Oh Yuuri, my Yuuri, you humans are so easily flustered by a few extra limbs. You wouldn’t expect me to cover my arms right?”

Otabek shares a look with JJ, not sure what to do about this crazy guy, when it hits him. Humans. Like …

“You’re one of them,” he says and Viktor looks over to him, a creepy smile on his face.

“Of who?”

“The sea folk. You’ve…”

_Viktor._

_As if loving one person is worth cutting apart your own tail to walk on land._

“You’re a friend of Yuri’s,” he says. His own voice sounds hollow to his ears, like someone punched the air right out of him. Which is exactly as he feels right now.

This is the man Yuri left his home for, this is the one he looked for, for months. And if Otabek hadn’t been such a selfish bastard, Yuri could have been here right now, reuniting with him.

Viktor’s head turns around to him. Gone is the dopy smile, replaced with hard eyes and a frown.

“And who are you?” he says, sounding out every word.

Otabek swallows. Who is he? A pirate. A pirate who pretended that the horrors of their society doesn’t exist. A pirate who made Yuri leave, robbing himself and every person Yuri is looking for off the chance to reunite with him.

“We’re also friends of Yuri’s,” JJ of all people says. “He spent some time on our ship, helped us with our hunt, fancied our Quartermaster, you know, the usual.”

Otabek flinches. What is JJ thinking?

Viktor’s frown deepens. He looks around, before setting his eyes on Otabek, rightfully thinking him the person responsible. “And where … is he now?”

Otabek opens his mouth, but doesn’t know what to say. He feels like he owes this person an answer, someone who is so important to Yuri. The thought of owning up to it in front of him, makes him feel nauseous but nonetheless he takes a deep breath and opens his mouth again.

“Oh you know how he is, always running off,” JJ says “He’s probably in the vicinity.”

“Huh,” Viktor makes and shares a look with Yuuri. “That does sound like him. In that case, we will start looking around.”

It’s implied that they will stay in the area and JJ says: “I think he’d like that. Secretly.”

Viktor nods at them and addresses Yuuri in a different language.

“We’ll be on our way then.”

Otabek watches the ship set sail again. Only when they’re out of earshot, does he turn around to JJ. “What the hell?”

“What, you want them to know that you’re the reason he’s not gonna see his little friend again?”

“He deserves to know.”

“And I already told you that I’m not looking for a new Quartermaster.”

Otabek sighs.

“Don’t be like that Otabek. If we were honest, we’d never get anything done, because we’d be dying on the floor somewhere. How do you think I survived being Captain?”

Otabek raises his eyebrow at him. He doesn’t need to tell JJ that he’s not the greatest Captain that ever lived. He’s brash and likes to jump head first into things. He’s not like Otabek who likes to think everything over. Well… everything apart from Yuri. Somehow he had lost his self-control and intelligence every time Yuri had so much as smiled at him. That feeling of weightlessness he had experience when talking to Yuri about his childhood, about his family. The pain and shame at his betrayal. How he had imagined a life at sea with Yuri by his side.

_You’ve obviously never been in love._

It is then, that he realises that his emotions for Yuri run deeper than friendship or camaraderie.

His throat constricts and his lungs feel like someone has put stones in them. He grips the rail and ignores JJ’s amused look.

He loves Yuri and he’ll never have the chance to tell him because of his own cowardice.

 

* * *

 

 

He lies awake at night, replaying every conversation he ever had with Yuri again and again in his head. How had he not noticed it? How could he have been so blind? Yuri had crept up on him, again and again until Otabek couldn’t do anything else than care for him, crave his presence and wish to protect him. The decision not to tell him had been a selfish one, one born out of fear that Yuri would leave – just as he did.

He wonders, while staring at the planks on top of him, ignoring the other men’s snoring around him – if Yuri would have reacted differently if Otabek had told him from the beginning. If he had been honest.

He doesn’t know. He hasn’t even thought about how Yuri might have felt for him, before he had found out about Otabek’s lies.

It doesn’t matter, he decides in the end. His feelings are irrelevant. He owes Yuri an apology and an explanation and in the end, a reunion with his family.

And he is intended on giving that to him.

 

* * *

 

 

And just like that, the wind reappears. Otabek steps out onto the deck, holding himself up by the rope and sharing a look with Mr de la Iglesia, who is trying his best to keep the ship on course. The sheet is rolled up at the top, so the wind won’t push them even harder.

There’s no thunder, no rain, just wind and waves.

“Where is it trying to bring us?” he asks and de la Iglesia nods backwards. “Where we came from. It doesn’t make any sense, I’ve never seen a wind pick up like that, it seems-“ _unnatural._

“What about the other ship?”

“We lost them, but if anyone can survive this, it’s one of the sea folk, I guess.”

Otabek agrees, even though he doesn’t wish for Yuri’s family to be too far away.

The wind picks up again, trying to blow them back and Otabek… Otabek gets a feeling.

“Let it go,” he orders de la Iglesia, who looks at him like he’s mad.

“What?”

“Let it go, let the wind carry us.” He narrows his eyes and de la Iglesia swallows. Looks him in the eyes and apparently decides that whatever he sees there, is good enough to not pick a fight.

“Everyone hold on,” he yells and Otabek grips the rope again. Then de la Iglesia lets the helm go and all hell breaks loose.

 

* * *

 

 

The sea is unforgiving, the wind harsh and cutting pushing them further off their cause. The members of their crew yell and scream, holding on for their life.

Otabek dimly registers JJ trying to take the helm, only to be held back by de la Iglesia and Ji. The waves are too strong, the water to unpredictable. If they try to hold against it now it will break their ship apart.

In the end, Otabek isn’t sure if they lose any men and even though that’s where his focus should be, it’s not.

It’s somewhere … else.

 

* * *

 

 

The Navy ship appears a few hundred yards before them as soon as the wind stops. Otabek looks back and sees the sea still at odds behind them, making any move backwards impossible.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” JJ yells at him and Otabek is at loss for words.

“They’ve seen us!” gets yelled from the lookout and JJ looks outright murderous. Worry and stubbornness war inside Otabek. Was this the right decision? Why did the wind carry them here? Maybe he had been an idiot and his feeling had been wrong?

“Turn around, immediately!” JJ orders the crew, even though they all know, there is no way around this.

“I don’t think you want to do that.”

Otabek turns around and sees Mr Chulanont at the rail, a spyglass before his eye.

Otabek grabs the one JJ is pulling out of his coat and looks through it.

While the Navy ship has seen them, they seem rather busy – probably thinking they’re a Merchant ship – with …

“Is that a net?” de la Iglesia asks and Otabek nearly can’t hear it, his heart is beating so loud.

The ship is indeed pulling a net out of the water. And in that net sits a very familiar blonde man, his lavender tail struggling against the ropes. Otabek can’t make out more than that because of the distance.

He looks back at the wind which brought them right here, at this very moment. He’s not the only one who notices; JJ draws a cross over his heart, as does de la Iglesia.

“Mr de la Iglesia?” he says, “I think we might need directions from his Majesties noble soldiers.”

The sailing master snorts. Otabek turns around to the crew, to JJ, who is looking at him like he can’t quite understand what is happening right now. Otabek doesn’t understand that much himself but he knows, Yuri is in trouble.

“Any objections?” he asks the surrounding crew, but no one says anything. “The let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Good day!” As the only person between all of them that might believably captain a ship like this, de la Iglesia gets sent forward. JJ’s accent is too French, Otabek, Mr Ji and Mr Chulanont look obviously not like any respecting trading company would let them captain a vessel like this. While the relations between Spain and England aren’t the best, de la Iglesia’s accent is American, which gives him an advantages.

Otabek crawls over the planks, while listening with one ear to the talking. He looks down to the men, motions them ‘get ready’ and waits for the news to reach the gunners. They are the ones who might need to get ready. They are the ones this depends on the most.

The Navy Ship isn’t big, nor does it carry a lot of guns. Supplies most likely, not a man o’ war. Not that Otabek would have cared at this point. Let them all come at him.

He nods towards Mr Ji who is waiting for his signal, raising the Black. It’s a chance for the Captain to give up his ship, without endangering Yuri.

“Well… this is awkward,” de la Iglesia says and Otabek cranes his neck up. One, two, three, four… no White. Well then.

He nods towards JJ, who gives the order. “Fire at will!”

Unlike the ship next to them, they are prepared, their guns are loaded, the cannon balls ready to be pushed in. They get out three salves that tear the ship apart, before they can even think to fight back.

Otabek looks up from his place, trying to take a look at Yuri. Bullets hit the wood around him, splintering the rail and the deck, but a quick looks tells him that the first salves they managed to shoot at them are enough to give them the advantages.

That is until a cannon hits the rail right in front of Otabek. Everything explodes before him, sending wood, people and weapons flying.

He hits the water before he knows it, sinking together with the wreckage of both ships. He pushes it out of the way, trying to swim up, but then he has never been a good swimmer. When he finally does make it up, something hits him in the shoulder, and he opens his mouth, swallowing water, while his shoulder throbs and the water around it gets painted red.

Otabek sinks, deeper and deeper, his lungs burning.

 

* * *

 

He dreams of Yuri. Yuri who is so close and yet so far away. Yuri whose blond hair engulfs him in a veil of the whitest gold. Whose long fingers grip his arms and try to pull him back. In his dreams, Yuri tries to safe him, tries to get the thing that connects them both out of Otabek’s lungs, while yelling furiously at him. He likes that Yuri still behaves the way he’s supposed to, in his dreams.

 

* * *

 

 

In reality, Otabek coughs up more water than should be humanly possible and looks directly into Mr Chulanont’s eyes. It’s disappointing to say the least. But then Chulanont gets pushed aside and Yuri crawls over to him his hair wet and dripping down onto Otabek’s own wet shirt and waistcoat.

Yuri’s eyes are wide and frightened, his expression so full of worry that Otabek would love nothing more than to cradle his head in his hands and tell him that everything is going to be alright.

What happens instead is a lot less romantic, but dramatic nonetheless. Otabek passes out.

 

* * *

 

 

He wakes to Yuri sitting in the giant bathtub that belonged to the former captain of the Duchess, playing with his hair and reading a book.

It’s an odd sight and for a second Otabek fears that he might have died and gone to a sphere where he will spend his days watching Yuri next to him – not that he minds that – when Yuri looks at him.

“You’re awake,” barely concealed anger swings through his tone and Otabek might reconsider. Maybe this is a sphere where Yuri makes him pay for lying to him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!”

“Yur-“

“What were you thinking just sitting there? Did you think they didn’t have any guns? Or where you so keen on dying that you thought ‘fuck it’? Even a baby would have seen that they would fire there, because it was right in front of a hatched! You think dying is gonna make me forgive you? Well you thought wrong asshole, because I have already forgiven you, so everything you did was totally meaningless!”

Otabek is speechless. He looks at Yuri, whose eyes are full of anger, his tail flicking furiously and his claws digging into the expensive fabric of the bathtub.

“Now apologise!”

Otabek sobers immediately. He tries to sit up as much as possible, getting as far as putting his feet on the ground until he realises that Yuri is sitting so close they could touch. “Yuri, I’m so sorry, I know I’ve-“

“Ah!” Yuri interrupts him. “I said apologise not give me some lame excuses.”

“I apologise.”

Yuri looks at him with narrowed eyes. “Well good enough.”

Then Yuri gets back to reading his book and Otabek is left sitting on the bed, his shoulder hurting and bandaged.

“Yuri,” he says and Yuri looks at him, his eyebrows raised. Otabek has never felt this out of his depth.

“I never meant to hurt you,” he ends up saying and Yuri finally puts his book away by letting it fall on the ground. He leans on the side of the tub, his face close to Otabek’s and his claws making clicking noises against the material.

“If you ever lie to me,” he starts. “I _will_ drown you.”

“I will let you.”

The corners of Yuri’s mouth twitch and Otabek feels about a hundred pounds lighter than before.

“I am also staying here.”

“Of course. But Viktor is in the vicinity, don’t you want to see him?”

“Pf,” Yuri makes and waves with his hand. “Who needs him anyway?” As if he already knows that they met.

Otabek frowns. He doesn’t quite get that kind of relationship, but Yuri doesn’t seem upset. Maybe they can find Viktor again, without making it a priority.

“You’re not surprised that we found you,” Otabek wonders and Yuri snorts, while rolling his eyes.

“I assume the sea brought you here right?” And then Otabek remembers. How Yuri had once mentioned that his grandfather had the power to control it, to conquer wind and summon waves and …  
Realisation dawns. Had Yuri’s grandfather been the one to bring him to Yuri?

“Otabek?” Yuri asks, seemingly impatient that Otabek is ignoring him. “One more thing.”

“Anything,” he answers and Yuri drops his head, his cheeks reddening.

“Kiss me?” he sounds innocent and shy, so much unlike the Yuri Otabek got to know in the last few weeks.

Of course Otabek obliges him and leans forward. It can’t even be counted as a kiss, just the barest brushing of lips against lips. They’re both breathing against each other mouths and Otabek sees Yuri smile.

“I have some amazing ideas for our future hunting partnership. We’ll rule the seas, you’ll see,” Yuri says and Otabek finds himself smiling despite the uncertain future.

He finds that he doesn’t care that much about the future, when Yuri pulls him forward by the neck and crashes their lips together in a real kiss.

 

**Author's Note:**

> as always follow us on tumblr if you want.  
> [artist](http://bpdryanross.tumblr.com/)  
> and  
> [author](http://everknowing.tumblr.com/)


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